When Metro 2033 first showed up in 2010, players were hooked right away. Anyone who has spent those countless hours crawling through the dim tunnels of Moscow’s Metro would agree it never gets any easier. There’s something about that choking darkness, the echo of distant growls, and the soft hiss of your gas mask that just sinks into your bones. Even when we ran out of bullets, we kept pushing forward, heart pounding, half-expecting a mutant to spring from around the corner. The games feel less like ordinary shooters and more like living nightmares, which you choose to enter again and again. And below, you’ll find the Metro games in order, so you can follow Artyom’s journey from frightened refugee to hardened survivor.
TABLE OF CONTENT
All Metro Games in Chronological Order
- Metro 2033 (2010)
- Metro: Last Light (2013)
- Metro Redux (2014)
- Metro Exodus (2019)
- Metro Exodus: Expanded Edition (2020)
Although each Metro instalment brings its own innovations, be it tighter stealth in Last Light or open-world stretches in Exodus, experiencing them in release order also mirrors Artyom’s personal journey from frightened survivor to resolved leader.
Breakdown of All Metro Games in Order
1. Metro 2033 (2010)
Metro 2033 was 4A Games’ first big outing, powered by their own 4A Engine and based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novel. The studio, many of whom had cut their teeth on S.T.A.L.K.E.R., decided to drop multiplayer completely so they could pour everything into telling a tight story and building a crushing atmosphere.
This is the one that started it all, back in 2010. You play as Artyom, a young man who barely survived the surface world’s nuclear fire and now spends his days in Moscow’s underground. At first, many were frustrated by the scarcity of ammo and the way mutants seemed to come out of the shadows at every twist in the tunnel, but that frustration is exactly what makes Metro 2033 feel so real. You can’t spray bullets like in other shooters, no, you must choose each shot carefully. And when you sneak past enemies instead of fighting, you get this wicked sense of relief, like you cheated death, just for a moment.
Every station you visit has a different vibe. Some are militarised and harsh, others run by religious fanatics or Queen of the Red Line communists. Their graffiti, their propaganda, the whispers in the hallways, all of it tells you more about what happened than any cutscene could. The watch that counts your moral choices sits on your wrist, ticking away, reminding you that your actions matter, because in the end, it shows you how many lives you saved or took. Even so, it was not perfect. There were glitches and the AI sometimes acted odd, but the atmosphere was so thick, we didn’t even notice.
2. Metro: Last Light (2013)
Metro: Last Light arrived in 2013 with better guns, smarter enemies, and a bit more polish. And yet it still feels like the same grim world you love, only sharper. Dmitry Glukhovsky helped write the dialogue this time around, and although a multiplayer mode was planned, they nixed it to focus on the single-player campaign.
Metro: Last Light fixed so many things Metro 2033 left unfinished. Artyom’s older, a bit wiser, and the world still hates him as much as he hates it. Last Light makes you feel powerful if you want to sneak and kill silently, but it also lets you go in loud if you’ve collected enough ammo.
The moral choices here got trickier, too. You might think you’re being a hero, but sometimes what feels right ends in tragedy. Having your decisions twist the ending keeps you up thinking even after you put the controller down. Plus, that lighting. Dark corners looked darker, and when a shaft of sunlight hit through a grate, you would actually pause to admire it. Last Light feels leaner, meaner, and slightly kinder than 2033, but make no mistake, it still gives you nightmares.
3. Metro Redux (2014)
Redux arrived in 2014, and let’s be real, it was a godsend for newcomers. If you never touched the first two games – now you’ve got both, remastered, together. Controls got unified, the HUD became cleaner, and the world looked sharper.
One of the biggest draws is the Ranger Mode. No HUD, no easy waypoints, no spare ammo – just you, your rifle, and the tunnel. Every noise gives you heart palpitations, because you have no idea if that cough meant someone was around the corner or if your filter was wearing out. It teaches you to slow down, listen, and dread every echo. Redux didn’t just give us better graphics, it gave us a purer Metro experience.
4. Metro Exodus (2019)
Then came Metro Exodus in February 2019, and it felt like stepping into a completely different world. Instead of tight tunnels, you get sprawling landscapes and roving levels where you’re free to explore. But don’t get comfy; the surface isn’t any less deadly. Scavenging for parts, crafting filter kits, and trading with weary survivors becomes part of daily life. Here, it feels like Metro had grown up right alongside Artyom, trading claustrophobia for open-air fear, because being out in the open meant dealing with bandits and giant mutant worms.
The story moved at its own pace, like a bad road trip, but you get to meet new faces – Anna, Miller, and the rest of the Aurora crew, and you actually care about them. Chapters switch you between icy forests and dusty deserts, and there’s this constant tension, because you never know if you can trust your own gun at the next click, or if your next step kicks up a nest of flesh-eating horrors. You feel hope for the first time in this series, and even that hope feels dangerous. The game is truly a peak of horror gaming and it’s a great predecessor to the next game in the series.
5. Metro Exodus: Expanded Edition (2020)
In May 2020, Metro Exodus: Expanded Edition dropped on the new consoles, and it’s basically Metro on steroids. It runs at 4K, sixty frames, and it uses full ray tracing which means light bounces around corners exactly how it should, making every hallway and every cratered field look insane. Also, all the DLCs – The Two Colonels, Sam’s Story, and those scary side quests are bundled in. Playing Sam’s Story through Alaska and feeling the cold through your controller, while scavenging for bread crumbs, feels like survival in its purest form.
Expanded Edition isn’t just prettier, it’s meatier. The extra chapters explain backstories, give you fresh gear, and plunge you deeper into the Metro mythos. By the time you finish the game, you feel like you earned every scar Artyom carries. It’s a powerful journey, and if you’ve followed the series this far, there’s no way you’ll regret diving back in.
Conclusion
So there it is: Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, Metro Redux, Metro Exodus, and the Expanded Edition laid out for you to experience Metro games in order to play. Each game builds on the last, adding layers of complexity, better visuals, and richer storytelling. It’s a slow burn, but once that world grabs you, it doesn’t let go.